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Wednesday, December 08, 2010

SHORYUKEN.COM SETH KILLIAN INTERVIEW ON MARVEL VS CAPCOM 3 GAME PLAY INNER WORKING

Keits: Many rumors are swirling around based on the fact that MODOK has yet to be seen blocking in any promotional or gameplay video. Can MODOK block normally?

Seth: Yes, MODOK can block normally :)

Keits: MODOK gains what we are calling "levels of understanding" when he hits with certain moves (analyse cube). Can you tell me exactly how this works? Which moves power it up? Which moves are powered up by it? Which moves reset his understanding back to zero?

Seth: MODOK is straight ridiculousness. You gain "levels of understanding" through successful hit with an Analyze Cube. The "levels" can be used in ways to basically give you really powerful versions of existing attacks (the powerup effect from the cube remains until been used). You can stack up as many of these as you like, and you can combo into the Analyze Cube, though it typically ends the combo with that move. Here are the unique moves MODOK gets when he has a "level of understanding":

--Psionic High Blast: does about 2x as much damage as regular Psi blasts, and causes opponent to reel and leaves you with a brief window for followup attacks afterwards.

--Super "Aegis" (not the real name): back+C produces MODOK's small "Aegis Reflector"-ish shield. With an Analyze Cube, you can produce a giant-sized version of this same shield. It doesn't hit like an Aegis, but is virtually impenetrable (to anything less than a super) for a while, and the giant version is so big you have to superjump just to get over it. It's obviously great on defense, but just like the Aegis, firing it out actually lets MODOK rush you down.

--Jamming Bomb: A slow-moving, tracking projectile that causes reel on hit but also causes the opponent's controls to be briefly reversed, a la Thanos and the Mind Gem from MSH.

Keits: Will players who opt not to download certain characters be able to fight against those characters online, like in BlazBlue CS?

Seth: Yes they will.

Keits: People are curious about She-Hulk's dizzy move. Is it a hit, or a grab? Can you mash out of the dizzy?

Seth: It's a grab, it has great range, and you can combo out of it bigtime. So far as I know, you can't mash out of the dizzy--it just ends after a small window. She-Hulk is an absolute beast in MVC3.

Keits: Does anyone other than X23 have a low hitting assist? We think Felicia might have one?

Seth: Yep, they both do. Low-hitting assists are not common, but there are a few more in the game. It's just another potential asset that gives you good reasons to pick some characters for their assist qualities as well as how good they are on point.

Keits: Can you give details on X-factor's final form?

Seth: X-Factor comes in 3 levels: Level 1 is if you've had no teammates knocked out, Level 2 is if you've had one teammate KO'd, and Level 3 is available when you're all by yourself. Level 1 lasts about 10 seconds and gives you a damage boost and speed boost. Level 2 lasts significantly longer and gives you more damage, and Level 3 is longer still and can be nearly double damage. As you know, all X-Factor activations immediately return you to neutral state.

You can only use X-Factor once per round, and when you use it can be a major factor. Burn it too early and it has less impact over less time. Wait too long to use it and you may get killed without busting it out at all. It's also a key factor (no pun intended) in deciding whether you're willing to burn it to kill off this one enemy character, bait your opponent by making an unsafe move safe, etc. It's definitely a new dimension to consider in MVC3 "meter management."

Keits: People want to know all about Arthur's armor. When/why does it break? What modifiers are present in naked/silver/gold armor modes on attack/defense/other?

Seth: Regular armor won't break--it's the Super Armor that breaks. The Super Armor is... a super. It powers up all of his moves in lots of different ways--more hits, more damage, tracking, more priority--you name it, there are a lot of different moves. It's on a (long-ish) timer, and at the end, the armor kind of pops off and you fly back (sometimes it feels a bit like a keep-away version of Guilty Gear's A.B.A.). The armor will break automatically at the end of the timer and leaves you in your shorts, but you can use the super again to restore regular armor. If you use the super again after restoring your armor, your regular armor becomes super all over again, and the circle of life is complete. Unsurprisingly, you take significantly more damage in your boxers.

Keits: What is the motion to perform Spider-man's web zip? Can he fire it in any direction, or only upforward from the ground and downforward from the air?

Seth: Web-zip is (Attack + Special button) and a direction (a command like MVC2's Storm's Lightning Attack). From the air, you can fire it in 4 directions--up-away, down-away, up-towards, and down-towards (basically the four diagonal directions). On the ground, you can fire it towards or away. The web travels until it makes contact with whichever surface it comes into contact with--either the floor, the "walls," or your opponent's face.

It's super versatile because you can also cancel the "zipping" motion at any time, either with an attack, special, or super. Depending on where you cancel it, your trajectory can change for some really tricky setups. If Spidey fires it from the ground, as soon as he zips he's also immediately in the air, so all attacks done out of it hit overhead. If he fires from the air, it brings him down *really* fast, so it potentially gives him the fastest high-low guessing games (with a side of front-back mixups) in MVC3.

Keits: Can Spiderman combo after the wall bounce from Crawler assault without X-factor, like Chun and V.Joe can?

Seth: Outside of trick-shots, no. The opponent recovers on the ground as Spidey returns to neutral state.

Keits: Can Spiderman's Ultimate Web Throw super grab air blocking opponents? How does this move function?

Seth: Yes it can. The move must be done while Spiderman is on the ground. It will not grab grounded opponents, but against an airborne opponent, it's unblockable. Pretty solid air-defense.

Keits: People are concerned that using an air exchange to tag and combo extend will be worthless because mashing every direction and the E button reportedly gets you out every time in the TGS build. This is what testers at conventions have said, so I have no idea if its true or not. Does the game have any countermeasure against mashing out exchange counters other than your opponent just not doing exchange tags?

Seth: You can punish people trying to mash out an air-tag, because if if the attacker doesn't actually attempt one against someone mashing, the masher leaves themselves open by mashing out their slowest air normal. When you do that, you're open to air supers, crossups--anything really. If you want to try and mash a counter, you risk resetting yourself, basically. It's a bit like SSFIV's frame trap counterhit normals that catch people trying to abuse the "foolproof" crouch tech technique.

Keits: Does Spencer's grapple arm pull him in on block, or only on hit? Can he fire it in all 8 directions? Does he have a grab super?

Seth: Arm only affects opponents on hit. On hit, you can pull them in for a followup, do a dropkick off the wall, or go for a quick follow-on punch. He has a regular command grab that you can combo out of (along with some special follow-up possibilities), but not a grab super.

Keits: Can you answer some questions about training mode for us fighting game nerds? Random block function?

Seth: There's not only random block, there are tons of other options, like high/mid block only, low block only, how you want the computer to respond to knockdowns, air-recovery, etc--tons of training mode nerd juice.

Keits: Seth, thank you so much for the answers and your time. I'll try to nab you for another one of these in January.